On February 21^st in Ottawa, SHARE (a leader in responsible investment services, research and education) and the National Aboriginal Trust Officers Association (NATOA) co-hosted the first ‘Reconciliation and the Indigenous Economy: The Role for Institutional Investors’ forum.

Attended by over 100 participants, the event brought together Indigenous business leaders and institutions from all around the country to discuss a new and emerging opportunity for institutional investors in the growing Indigenous economy.

Building on the premise that Indigenous people have been systematically excluded from the economic table of this country over time, the forum generated thoughtful insights into the role of the investor in economic reconciliation today. It offered the space to connect with Indigenous leaders, businesses, philanthropists and asset managers to facilitate new opportunities for investment in the Indigenous economy.

It also served as a convergence of purpose —  to establish a clear focus on the leadership needed to increase investments in the Indigenous economy.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was adopted by the UN general assembly in 2007 and calls for the Indigenous right to an economy, helped lay the groundwork for examining the role of institutional investors in the emerging Indigenous economy. In line with the Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action #92, which calls for respectful and meaningful relationships with Indigenous peoples, the Ottawa forum focused on encouraging an institutional investment environment that develops long-term sustainable opportunities for economic development projects with Indigenous communities.

Building on existing national strategies, such as the work of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Businesses’ Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) and Supply Change programs, the forum highlighted pathways for engagement within the Indigenous economy and ways to overcome barriers around access to capital.

Indigenous business leaders brought a clear voice to the forum. Clint Davis’ work at North 35 Capital helps Indigenous nations achieve growth and value creation by maximizing their inherent competitive advantage. Davis highlighted the strategic advantage of Indigenous economic inclusion and the need for collaboration in overcoming financial barriers and challenges.

Shannin Metawabin, CEO of the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, pointed out the significance of the growth of the Indigenous economy and the need for increased access to capital, particularly through national Canadian government funding. He noted that rectifying the under-capitalization of the Indigenous economy should be a central theme in the economic reconciliation narrative of this country.

A recently released Manitoba First Nation economic impact report pegged the regional Indigenous economy at an estimated $9.3 billion annually. The national Indigenous economy has been estimated at $30 billion. There is enormous opportunity for strategically aligning Indigenous economic development and the investment environment in Canada.  A $100 billion Indigenous economy is possible. The forum made it clear that the time for institutional investing in reconciliation is now.

Carol Anne Hilton is the CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute

Also by Carol Anne Hilton from Corporate Knights’  Spring Issue: Indigenomics in Action 

The post Investing in reconciliation: the role for institutional investors appeared first on Corporate Knights.

It’s time for a new story, one where Indigenous people assume their rightful place at the economic table of this country.

Why Indigenomics? The truths of this country lie in the experience of Indigenous communities in poverty without access to clean water, warm housing, clean power or good jobs. The root of this can be traced to centuries of being excluded economically.

Dara Kelly notes in her paper Indigenous Development, Wealth, Freedom and Capabilities: “Situating Indigenous economic freedom within a framework of humanism affirms not only the rights of Indigenous peoples to define our own economic futures, but in exchange for economic autonomy, contracts a mutual responsibility to care for, and not violate the rights of others to economic freedom.” This is the next-level Canada. This is Indigenomics.

Through the formation of Canada, Indigenous peoples have gone through four economic stages:

1. Disruption: The first is characterized by the systemic disruption of existing Indigenous economic systems, ways of being and removal from the land while severing inherent authority and responsibility to place.

2. Entanglement: This second stage is characterized by the complexity of the entanglement of the Indigenous relationship firmly embedded within conflict stemming from the disruption.

3. Emergence: The third is characterized by the emergence of the Indigenous legal environment. With over 250 cases won to date, these cases have shaped the economic space for the growth of Indigenous business.

4. Empowerment: Today, Canada is in the fourth stage, characterized by the rise of Indigenous economic empowerment. As an effect of the shifting Indigenous Aboriginal rights and title legal environment, economic equality and inclusion now shape the rise of Indigenous economic empowerment today.

A fundamental question that shaped this country was, how do we eliminate the Indian problem? It is a question that has penetrated the consciousness of generations of Canadians allowing the perception of Indigenous peoples as a problem or a burden. This question begs for relevance as the Canadian courts continuously validate Indigenous rights through the acknowledgement of our place in modernity and the requirement for economic inclusion today.

Questions are the architecture for tomorrow; the quality of questions we ask drives the results. The question of today is, how do we collectively facilitate the development of Canada’s $100 billion Indigenous economy? In the words of Canada’s greatest hockey player, Wayne Gretzky: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.” This is how the Indigenomics Institute is working to develop the emerging Indigenous economy.

This new story of Indigenous peoples can be seen through the joint work of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and TD Economics, which estimated the annual contribution of the Indigenous economy at over $30 billion in 2016. This figure acts as an initial metric of the growing strength of the Indigenous economy.

The benchmark numbers that frame the growth of the Indigenous economy can be drawn from recent reports:

• An Atlantic region report identified the size of the Indigenous economic impact in that region as $1.2 billion annually.

• A recent Manitoba report puts the Indigenous economic impact in the province at over $9 billion annually.

• An Indigenous Works report based on a research study found that up to 85% of Canadian businesses currently do not engage with Indigenous peoples in any way.

• A National Indigenous Economic Development Board report highlights the potential of an annual $27.7 billion boost to the Canadian economy through better mobilization of the Indigenous workforce.

Framing the future of Canada and the Indigenous relationship can be understood within the concept that we as a country have reached the intersection where the risk of doing nothing outweighs the cost of doing nothing.

Setting the stage for a next-level Canada today means actualizing this growing story of Indigenous economic potential. It must be based on a new understanding that the growth of the Indigenous economy cannot be advanced within existing Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada program and funding approaches. Modern Indigenous economic design is required today, with a strong Indigenous equity ownership, governance, environmental planning and procurement at the heart of any approach.

While Canada was founded on the economic legacy of systemic economic segregation of Indigenous peoples, the pathway forward must be inclusive and purposeful. Indigenous resilience is now expressing out from the margins to the centre of this country’s economic lifeblood.

Indigenomics is a platform for economic reconciliation. Indigenous peoples have existed on the margins of the balance sheet, viewed as a liability. Reconciliation must now occur in the balance sheet of this country. To achieve a $100 billion Indigenous economy requires a shift in how we relate to Indigenous peoples – to see Indigenous peoples as economic powerhouses in our own right.

The $100 billion Indigenous economy is a modern stake in the ground, the marker of a new economic reality on which Canada’s larger economic future now depends.

Carol Anne Hilton is the CEO and founder of the Indigenomics Institute

Also by Carol Anne Hilton: ‘Investing in reconciliation: the role for institutional investors.’

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